After 25 years in the baking business, Rachel Brown knew her exquisitely decorated cupcakes were popular. She just didn’t realise how popular.

So when she decided to drum up a little extra trade with a discount deal, she bit off more than she could chew.

Swamped by orders, Mrs Brown, who normally makes 100 cupcakes a month, found herself having to bake an astonishing 102,000.

And disastrously, because her deal had been so generous and the demand so huge, she made a loss on every order – wiping out her profits for the entire year.

The cupcake catastrophe started when the 50-year-old cook posted a deal on money-saving website Groupon.

Groupon Deal Burns Small Bakery With Orders for 102,000 Cupcakes

The owner of a small bakery outside London claims she had to make 102,000 cupcakes when a deal she posted on Groupon took off online, according to reports.

Owner Rachel Brown offered a 75 percent discount on the money-saving website for 12 custom cupcakes, which typically sell for $40 and were available through Groupon for $10, the Telegraph reported.

Brown was prepared to fill a couple hundred orders, but when 8,500 poured in, her small staff at the Need a Cake bakery was inundated and unable to keep up with the demand.

Brown told the Telegraph she lost over $3 on each batch and had to hire additional help to fill the orders at a cost of $19,500, cancelling out a full year’s profit on the business.

“It’s been an absolutely nightmare,” she said in an interview with the Telegraph. “Without doubt, the worst ever business decision I have made.”

Groupon, the money-saving website which offers daily deals for as much as 80 percent off the original price, has soared in popularity since it launched in 2008. Now in 43 countries, deals are available for everything from dinners to dance lessons, weekend getaways, even medical procedures, and have meant big savings for online bargain hunters.Groupon Horror Bakery Must Make 102 000 Cupcakes

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s photos netted 1.5 million views on her blog since she posted them earlier this week, saying the pictures are “screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy,” the Associated Press reported.

Some liberals feared that the posting by 20-year-old university student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy would taint them in the eyes of deeply conservative Egyptians ahead of Nov. 28 parliamentary elections in which they are trying to compete with fundamentalist Islamic parties.

Ms. Elmahdy — whose boyfriend, Kareem Amer, spent four years in jail for writings deemed insulting to Islam and Mr. Mubarak — posted the photographs with a statement declaring them an act of rebellion against Egypt’s conservative culture and “sexual complexes,” in the spirit of the revolution....CONTINUE READING Aliaa Magda Elmahdy Blog Nude Photos:Aliaa Magda Elmahdy n u de photos

Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has become a household name in the Middle East and sparked a global uproar after a friend posted a photo of her naked on Twitter.

It was later posted on Twitter with the hashtag #nudephotorevolutionary. The tweet was viewed over a million times, while Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's followers jumped from a few hundred to more than 14,000.Aliaa Magda Elmahdy actions have received global media coverage and provoked outrage in Egypt, a conservative Muslim country where most women wear the veil. Many liberals fear that Elmahdy's actions will hurt their prospects in the parliamentary election next week.

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, an Egyptian blogger is challenging the puritanical Islamic in her country, taking it off and the publication of the photos on the web.Aliaa Magda Elmahdy said that it’s her naked body.In an unprecedented move, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy on Sunday dared to publish a nude self-portrait, along with other nude photos on her blog as an expression of personal freedom.

“I have the right to live freely anywhere,”Aliaa wrote in her blog. “I feel happy and satisfied when I feel I am truly free,”Aliaa Magda Elmahdy said.Titled “fan a’ry”, meaning art nude, Aliaa published several photos of herself naked, including one with strategically placed yellow rectangles.

“The yellow rectangles on the eyes, mouth and genitals look like censoring of our knowledge, expression and sexuality,”wrote Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, who turns 20 on Wednesday.On Aliaa Magda Elmahdy Facebook page, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy wrote that she was “echoing the cries against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy.”

An Egyptian activist, media arts student at American University in Cairo, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy took the pictures in the house of her parents. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy blog also has a picture of a seated bare man holding a guitar.While the placement of provocative pictures on the Web rarely raises eyebrows in the West, in a gradually more conservative Egypt what Aliaa Magda Elmahdy did is an unprecedented act of defiance.

Egyptian activist, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy have enjoyed relatively more personal freedom than their female counterparts elsewhere in the Arab world, but a worrying consequence of the fall of the old dictator Hosni Mubarak has been the rise of the Islamic Brotherhood and other religious parties.Western clothes, once common in middle-class women, has given way progressively more to headscarves and more modest attire.And art students like Aliaa Magda Elmahdy can no longer draw nude models because they have been banned.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Latest issue of Japanese magazine, Bubka (known for publishing accurate scandals) has published pictures of Aya Hirano in bed with what seems to be a 'post-sex' photo. According to sources, the reason behind why she was "sacked" by her label was due to her SCANDALOUS affairs with her band mates.

Many are convinced that the guy in the picture with her is none other than, "Katsundo" who's a 35 year old guitarist in Aya's band. Further revelations by insiders within her agency include, Aya being very "feisty" with her bandmates that she "slept" with 3/4 of her bandmates except for the bassist. As a result she was reported on and the three who slept with her got fired.